Louisiana:
The History of an American
State
Chapter 5
Louisiana’s Early People:
Natives and Newcomers
Study Presentation
©2005 Clairmont Press
Louisiana’s Early People:
Natives and Newcomers
Section 1: Prehistoric Cultures
Section 2: Historic Indian Tribes
Section 3: Early Historic Culture
Section 1:
Prehistoric Cultures
ESSENTIAL QUESTION:
–What have archaeologists learned
about the Native American cultures
of the Louisiana area?
Section 1:
Prehistoric Cultures
What words do I need to know?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
archaeologist
midden
nomad
atlatl
mound
artifacts
agriculture
temple mounds
Timeline Facts
10,000 B.C. – 1600 A.D.
• Paleo Indian Period
• 10,000 B.C. – 6000 B.C.
• Meso Indian Period
• 7500 B.C. – 2000 B.C.
• Early Neo Indian Period
• 2000 B.C. - A.D. 800
• Late Neo Period
• 800 B.C. – A.D. 1600
• Historic Indian Cultures
• 1600s
Prehistoric Cultures
(Introduction)
• No written records of first people
• Only hints and clues at places of food preparation,
tools made, shelters built, & ceremonial sites
• archaeologists: scientists who study items of
ancient people
• middens: garbage dumps of past civilizations
• Radiocarbon dating: determines age of a site being
studied (conclusions often up-dated)
• Four stages of Louisiana prehistory
– movement, weapons & tools, food, & religious practices
Paleo Indians
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paleo: word for “ancient”
Oldest known Indians in Louisiana
Traveled in small groups
Believed 1st people migrated to North America
from Asia by way of an Alaska-Siberia land
bridge (about 10,000 B.C.)
• Followed animals that provided food & clothing
• Gradually spread over North & South American
continents by traveling east & south
• Many clues found (throughout Louisiana)
supporting existence of early primitive tribes and
their lifestyle
Meso Indians
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Smaller animals hunted – deer, rabbit, etc.
New prehistoric period – the Meso Indians
Nomadic lifestyle (stayed in one place longer)
Natural environment gave wider range of foods
Use of the atlatl (an added improvement for
hunting) and items such as fish hooks & needles
• More permanent housing built
• Mounds built near houses (5000-3000 B.C.)
• Different kinds of artifacts left behind
Early Neo Indians
• Left evidence of pottery making with
designs around 1000 B.C.
• Seasonal villages built
• Development of bow & arrow (c.500 A.D.)
• Mainstays for food: wild grapes, palmetto,
fruits, pigweed, & amaranth
• More elaborate ornaments than earlier
periods plus evidence of trading
• Artifacts – bracelets, animal tooth
pendants, figurines, pottery pipes, shells
(often buried with dead) in mounds
Late Neo Indians
• Period about 800 A.D. until Europeans
arrived
• Larger villages & located near
waterways
• Waterways for travel & as food source
• More permanent houses of wattle and
daub (woven sticks covered with mud)
• Switch in lifestyle from gathering to
agriculture
Late Neo Indians
• Lived in one location year-round
• Planted harvest crops, i.e., maize
(corn), beans, squash, & pumpkins
• Noted for intercropping (planting in
same plot)
• Built temples atop mounds
• Open plaza (serving as ceremonial
ground) built between two or more
mounds
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Section 2:
Historic Indian Tribes
ESSENTIAL QUESTION:
–Which major tribes were living in
Louisiana when the Europeans
arrived?
Section 2:
Historic Indian Tribes
What words do I need to know?
1. immunity
2. tribe
3. treaty
4. totem
5. clan
Section 2:
Historic Indian Tribes
(Introduction)
• Early beginnings: arrival of Europeans in North
America; written records kept about Indian life
• Language & customs of American Indians (“The
People”) often misunderstood
• Early 16th century: European diseases brought
by Spanish caused many deaths to Indians
• Early 18th century: arrival of French in Louisiana
• Mobilian-Choctaw: trading language used by
Louisiana Indians (basis for many place names
in Louisiana)
• Tribes identified by French explorers & trappers
Atakapa
• Lived a primitive lifestyle in the Calcasieu
Parish area
• Described as cannibals
• In Choctaw: Atakapa or “eaters of flesh”
• Cannibalism most likely a ritual or
ceremony
• Displaced by colonists: First the French &
then the Spanish
Natchez
• Primary village of the Natchez people (called
Grand Village)
• Village located near present-day Natchez,
Mississippi (eastern bluffs of Mississippi R.)
• Taensa & Avoyel (tribes on west bank of
Mississippi R.)
• Natchez social structure: unusual, consisting of
common people (stinkards), nobles, & chiefs
• Tattoos (showing status) worn by everyone
• Ruler (“Great Sun”) serving as both a king &
religious figure
• Tribe (overtaken by French & Choctaw) driven
from region
Caddo
• Name (Caddo or Kadohadacho) applied by
French to entire group of tribes
– Included the Natchitoches & the Ouachita
• Caddo area – center of land disputes
• Caddo Lake & Caddo Parish named for 1st
occupants
• After Louisiana Purchase, American trade
regulations accepted
• 1853: land sold to United States from Caddo
– One million acres for $80,000 (cash & trade
goods)
• Present Caddo home: a reservation in Oklahoma
Choctaw
• 2nd largest tribe in
southeastern U.S.
when Europeans
came
• Occupied area:
included present-day
Georgia, Alabama,
southern Mississippi,
& Louisiana
• Lifestyles: farmers
living in permanent
towns
– Had extensive
trade routes
• Built some roads (still
known as Choctaw
roads)
• Fought against the
British in American
Revolution
• 1830s: ceded most
lands to US
• Today most live on
Oklahoma & Mississippi
reservations
Houma
• Late 1600s: greeted early French explorer
Robert Cavelier de La Salle
• Primary village (about 140 cabins) near
Angola in West Feliciana Parish
• Driven into swamp & marsh (learned to
hunt, fish, & trap)
• Adopted crawfish as tribal symbol of
kinship & protection
• Istrouma (another symbol – tall red pole):
boundary marker between hunting
grounds of Houma and the Bayougoula
Houma
• Marker called baton rouge (French for “red stick”)
– Later name of Louisiana’s capital city
• Intermarried with the Bayougoula, Acolipissa, &
Atakapa
• Not recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs
– Federal recognition still sought by tribe
• Present home: Terrebonne & Lafourche parishes
• Community center at Dulac maintained by Houma
– Old ways of weaving & woodcarving
emphasized
Tunica-Biloxi
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Prior residence in Mississippi
Lost ancestral home to the Chickasaw
Biloxi driven out by French
By late 1780’s Tunica-Biloxi – settlement in
Avoyelles Parish
Spanish land grant to tribes – power gained by
trading
Tribe governed by war & peace chiefs
Totem (tribal symbol): rattlesnake
1980s: tribal recognition by US government
Present reservation (near Marksville in
Avoyelles Parish) – own court & police system
Chitimacha
• Chitimacha, meaning “people altogether
red”
• By 1650: over 4,000 in villages along
Bayou Teche, Grand Lake, Butte LaRose,
& the mouth of Bayou Plaquemine
• Ruled by one male chief – inherited
• Women (political power – served as
healers)
• Conflicts with French – eventual peace
Chitimacha
• By 1905: much land lost
• Court struggle – part of ancestral
homeland regained
• Intermarriage of Chitimacha & Acadians
– French (common language)
• 1971: received federal recognition
• Present residence: St. Mary Parish
(almost 300 acres)
Coushatta
• Left home on Tennessee River due to de Soto’s
force to give gold they didn’t have
• Late 18th century: settled in south central
Louisiana, departing from Georgia & Alabama
• Avoided conflicts between Spain & the US
• Lived in clans made up of many families
• Lifestyles: craftsman, hunters, farmers
• 1884: bought land near Bayou Blue in Allen Parish
• 1973: Federal recognition of tribe
• Active tribe – organized government & vital,
thriving community
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Section 3:
Early Historic Culture
ESSENTIAL QUESTION:
–What were the elements of Native
American culture?
Section 3:
Early Historic Culture
What words do I need to know?
1. pirogue
2. calumet
The Village
• Community life organized around a
tribe or a clan, headed by a chief or
chiefs
• Kinship important, caste system used
• Membership in clans determined
through mother’s side of the family
• Children’s growth & behavior (under
adult care) – discipline mild
The Village
• Access to higher groups through
marriage
• Children’s play – imitation of adult
work
• Games – important part of village life
• Wrestling, racing, & archery – part of
competitive matches
Clothing
• Louisiana Indians
– Simple clothing from available materials, based on
climate & season
– Breechcloths worn by men (buckskin)
– Simple skirts worn by women
• Natchez women
– Garment of cloth made from mulberry bark
• Choctaw women
– Long skirts of buffalo wool or mulberry bark
• Women in other tribes
– Skirts made of woven palmetto leaves, Spanish moss,
plant fibers, buckskin
Clothing
• Caddo Indians
– Buckskin or fur ponchos (women)
– Pierced noses for ornaments
• Children
– Simple dress: often no clothes in summer
• Footwear
– Moccasins from skins of deer, bear, bison
• Special Occasions
– Feather cape (woven net covered with turkey, duck,
or swan feathers)
• Body ornaments, tattooing (common to all
groups)
• Pierced ears (popular)
Work
• Environment of suitable plants & animals
• Various types of making a living due to
proximity to certain areas
• Teamwork of men to clear land, construct
houses, built boats
• Teamwork of women to weave baskets,
make pottery, craft utensils
• Items not needed traded for additional
supplies
Shelter
• Houses built from available materials,
adapted to climate
• Rectangular log cabins & round summer
house of woven grass (Caddo)
• Simple wood frame plastered with a clayand-moss mixture, thatched with palmetto
leaves (Choctaw)
• No window openings – small door to the
east for good luck
• Houses quite large (in some tribes –
housing several families)
Food
• Food sources: acorns, hickory nuts,
mayhaw, blackberries, many other plants,
and some 250 kinds of roots
• Farmers successful
– Cultivated local plants (sunflower,
amaranth, tobacco)
– Traded with Mexican tribes (corn,
beans, squash)
• Granaries built high off ground
– Protected corn supply
– Stored food for survival in hard times
Food
• Corn used as mainstay of meals
• Sagamite (dish with ground corn)
• Dried corn (“pinole” – Spanish) (“cold
meal” – British)
• Eventually became southern dish of
grits
• Ground into meal – baked into bread
• Tamale-like dish using meat filling
(Caddo, Choctaw)
Religion
• Based on their concept of the world, preserving balance
& harmony
• Everything a part of a sacred whole
• Light of the sun (a sacred power)
• Annual celebrations (corn & harvest festivals)
• Dance & music
– Specific meaning for both
– Imitated animals to tell a story / teach lesson
– Instruments used (drums, cane flutes)
• Some practices misunderstood
– Human sacrifice (cruel & evil to some Europeans)
– Acts bringing honor to family (to some Indians)
Government
• A war chief (military leader) and a peace
chief in charge of tribe (handled tribal
matters)
• Chiefs inherited positions, others selected
• Smoking peace pipe (calumet) – an
agreement to avoid war
• Variety of reasons for going to war
• Employed secrecy, surprising enemy
• Depended on hand-to-hand combat, using
knives & war clubs
• Severe punishments for wrong doers
Contact with Europeans
• Indians’ way of life affected forever by
interactions with British, French, &Spanish
• Interfered with internal Indian affairs
• Relocated many Indians
• Involved Indians in conflicts
• Enslaved Indians
• Instrumental in change from hunting &
agricultural society to one dependent on
trade
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